February 2012 - Grey Wagtail still here!

Saturday 16th: This morning, the Grey Wagtail arrived at 9:30am. Now that it getting lighter earlier, she is probably around earlier but as I don't tend to rise from bed until later at the weekends, of course I don't see her! Though not in the garden all the time every day, the Grey Wagtail is still around and visits the garden/back door for live mealworms two or three times a day, every day,spreading her wings and long tail in an effort to make herself bigger to deter her rivals when collecting mealworms. She has been a constant visitor since February 2nd. Now that the snow has gone and the pond is ice-free, she spends her time, while she is here, in and around the pond on the waterfall, in the water chute looking for marine life such as shrimps or on the house roof. We suspect that in the periods when she is away from the garden, she is scouting new territories in preparation for Spring.

The Wren is still a regular visitor each day also for live mealworms. This morning, it was giving that familiar high-pitched call that is usually heard in woodland. As usual a Robin is around and also visits the back door for live mealworms as do the House Sparrows and male Blackbird.

A Grey Squirrel got into the loft this week and couldn't find it's way out. For three days it was wandering around the loft chewing rafters and insulation. Mel got a rat trap and eventually managed to entice it in and trap it. Yesterday, she left the loft hatch open and the ladder down with the trap at the hatch and food at the base of the ladders. Believe it or not the squirrel actually climbed down the ladders into the study to eat food. Mel got to within a foot of it but the squirrel was too quick and jumped over her out-stretched hand racing up the ladder and back into the loft. Mel stood guard and 30 minutes later, the squirrel was heard again. With food in the trap, the squirrel entered and seemed relieved to be eating. Gently, Mel carried the trap from the loft. The squirrel calmly ate and drank lots of water. It was very thin with parts of its skeleton starting to show. For 15 minutes it stayed calmly in the trap eating and drinking. Mel carried the trap downstairs to the garden where she released it to familiar surroundings. This squirrel is a regular visitor to our garden and will always take monkey nuts from the back door when "SQUIRREL" is called!

Smaller creatures seen recently are the Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthenus verbasci), a very small rounded beetle approx 2 - 10mm in size as seen in these enlarged images below.

And the Silverfish (Lepisma saccharina) 0.5 - 2cm, is a creature that lived during the era of the Dinosaurs! Judging from this image, it  does look prehistoric!

February 2012 - Yes... the Wagtail and snow.

Sunday 5th: Well, it was at the back door this morning at 9:30am to get meal worms that I had just recently put out and the Grey Wagtail muscled its way through the House Sparrows to get one! Snow had fallen late yesterday afternoon and is lying about 6cms deep, though it is fairly mild today and a thaw seems to be underway. At the time of writing this (lunchtime), the Wagtail has been here all morning pecking at the ice on the pond and returning frequently to the back door to get a meal worm.

February 2012 - Grey Wagtail has returned!

Saturday 4th: The Grey Wagtail is a female, and after a months' absence, came back to our garden last Thursday. This must be the same bird that was here last year. Thursday 2nd was the day that Melanie first saw the Wagtail since last December 19th. Where has it been all this time and why has it come back to our garden? Not that we are complaining, we are "chuffed-to-bits" that she is back. Mel was positively over the moon when she rang me at work to tell me the good news.

We have taken note of the fact that when she last spent time in our garden; on 28/11/11, 30/11/11, 2/12/11, 4/12/11, 12/12/11, 14/12/11 and 19/12/11, the weather was very cold and frosty. The Wagtail was not seen until 2/2/12 which coincided with a period of mild weather conditions. Then last Thursday, she was spotted in the garden by Mel. Now she has been here for three consecutive days and the weather has turned bitterly cold again, and this afternoon, a couple of inches of snow has fallen and settled.

Last Thursday, the Wagtail spent a little time in the garden but yesterday and today she had spent much of the day in and around the back garden. In fact, today, she didn't leave the garden until 4:30pm! The Wagtail has even taken to eating live meal worms and will come to the back door to get a snack. The Wren has taken to shadowing the Grey Wagtail around the pond to pick at anything edible that the Wagtail disregards! The Grey Wagtail has had to endure the occasional mobbing by the male Blackbird or a Starling when it gs a meal worm, but this harassment hasn't bothered the bird to any degree. So we suspect that as long as we have cold weather the Grey Wagtail will remain in our garden, eating meal worms and other bird food.